[pawhewitt]

I believe the confusion here is just based on the syntax, to the q interpreter ( 11 22 ), 11 22 or indeed ( 11; 22 ) all resolve to the same list, * being atomic is applied to each item.

To obtain your result vector of 11 154 you’d need to explicitly demarcate 11 from 12 either via parantheses as in

q) (11;22*3+4)

or via joining 11 to the result of 22*3+4

q) 11 , 22*3+4